If the bull market in commodities is over, somebody might want to make sure Tenaris
At $65 a share, the deal will be worth close to $3.2 billion in total and should significantly expand Tenaris' access to the U.S. and Canadian markets. As you might have guessed from the name, Maverick is in a similar line of business -- making tubular steel products mostly for the energy industry, but also for applications such as electrical conduits.
But given that the history of corporate merger-and-acquisition activity is largely one of failure and a transfer of wealth from buying shareholders to selling shareholders, this deal doesn't prove anything about the prospects for Tenaris' business.
That said, I still think there's a lot of work remaining in expanding energy-production infrastructure. Companies ranging from ExxonMobil
I therefore think there should be good demand for tubular steel products for at least a couple of years. Yet I don't know whether Tenaris and others like Lone Star Technologies
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson but has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).